1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the representation and display of time. More specifically, the present invention relates to a device adapted for displaying time in the form of a selectable display pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Throughout history, people have tried to display time. First, there were primitive sundials, then mechanical clocks, and now digital clocks.
Children struggle to learn how to tell time when first exposed to either traditional mechanical clocks or digital numerical presentations of the time of day. Consequently, a need has been felt for providing an alternative method of presenting information about the time of day that is customizable, flexible, changeable, and readily understandable. The present invention would be another means of telling time after the mechanical and digital timepieces in widespread use today.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,964, issued Dec. 4, 1973 to Fukumoto, describes a time-indicating apparatus using neither figures nor pointers, wherein the time-indicating plane is divided into the hour, minute and second indicating sections of a multiple of twelve and electric lamps or the like provided inside said sections are turned on or off by means of a switch connected to the clock mechanism to indicate the time by illuminating said sections successively.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,409, issued May 25, 1976 to Manber, describes a watch display including first and second concentric circular arrays of light emitting diodes which are sequentially energized to indicate the minutes and hours such that only one diode from each array is energized at any one time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,484, issued Jul. 12, 1988 to Pardo, describes a clock device having a hollow housing bearing readily viewable adjacent first, second and illuminatable display panels. The first panel bears the hour display element and an inverted V indicating zero, four dots indicating ones and two horizontal bars each indicating five. The second panel is the tens of minutes display element and bears four dots and one horizontal bar, while the fifth panel is the minutes display element and bears an inverted V, four dots and one horizontal bar. The device can also include a similar temperature measuring and display mechanism, with separate fourth, fifth and sixth display panels bearing Mayan symbols, and + and − symbols, with switches to cause the device to alternately or simultaneously display the time and temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,150, issued Oct. 3, 1989 to Norman, describes an apparatus for conveying time and date information by way of at least one array. Each array contains at least one pictorial image presented on a plane having no visible fittings, and each of the pictorial images has no meaning attached to its shape but by its presence in an array indicating the integer 1 and by one of its absence and its diminishment indicating the integer 0. Each of the arrays represents a binary number indicating at least one of seconds, minutes, hours, days of the week, days of the month, months, seasons and years. The image in the array is positioned relative to a reference not forming part of the array and not forming part of the image in the array not withstanding the presence, absence or diminishment of other images in any array.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,524, issued Apr. 24, 1990 to Kotob, describes a timepiece such that the dial of the timepiece is provided with a first circular array of twelve blue LEDs indicating hours, a second next-outermost array of sixty red LEDs indicating minutes, and a third next-outermost array of sixty green LEDs indicating seconds. Every fifth red “minute” LED is distinct from the intermediate “minute” LEDs in that it is either spaced farther apart from the adjacent LEDs or is larger than the adjacent LEDs, or both. A switch is provided in the timing circuit of the timepiece to select between a “normal” mode of operation wherein the sixty “minute” LEDs are energized in sequence, at the passage of each minute and a “teaching” mode of operation wherein only every fifth “minute” LED is energized, in sequence, at the passage of each five minute interval.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,870, issued Apr. 16, 1991 to Vessa, describes an electronic timepiece having a display with a center position and twelve columns. Each column has at least five display elements extending in a radial direction from the center position. The display elements of each column define at least five concentric rows. One of the rows defines a five minute hand row and another row defines an hour row. The minutes are displayed along each radial column to represent time periods of from one to four minutes with the fifth being indicated by the five minute display elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,013, issued Jul. 13, 1993 to Bik, describes a microelectronic-based timekeeping apparatus having several display means that change color to indicate the time-of-day, and user accessible switches for setting modes of operation. The apparatus and switches are mounted within an aluminum frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,327, issued Jun. 11, 1996 to Cordova, Jr., describes a display and method for depicting the passage of time by selectively and progressively filling predetermined areas, where each area represents hours, minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds, respectively. The areas may be of any shape or combination of shapes. The portion of the area that is filled represents that portion of an hour, minute, second or tenth of second that has passed. The areas may be normally dark in which case filling illuminates the area, or may be normally light in which case filling darkens the area. The areas may be arranged in unconventional and discontinuous patterns and incorporated into a wide variety of objects.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,185, issued Jun. 3, 1997 to Brewer, et al., describes a dynamically changing, multi-color liquid crystal display for electronic watches or other design apparel items. The display can be adapted to provide various colored images such as geometric images, animation images, customized images, designer labels, logos, etc. on colored backgrounds or, alternatively, provides a color changing capability that is aesthetically pleasing and fashionable. Moreover, the dynamically changing watch or other designer apparel item allows for the electronic control of the color appearance of the liquid crystal display as well as electronic control of the liquid crystal display images, such images being generally independent of the time of day.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,376, issued Dec. 2, 1997 to Sullivan, describes a method and device for displaying time using a single segment member where the length and position of the segment member reflects the time. The device generally comprises a timer circuit to set and maintain hours and minutes of time, and a segment member control circuit which is responsive to the timer circuit and adjusts the length and position of the segment member to reflect the time maintained by the timer circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,798, issued Oct. 6, 1998 to Luchun, describes a timepiece having a novel display with an integral alphanumeric display, which includes alternating light and dark bands to assist in the determination by a user of the current time. The display includes two columns of a dozen hourly display elements each for indicating the current hour. Located around the perimeter of the display is a ring of sixty minute display elements. The timepiece includes a message receiver for decoding conventional paging protocols received through an RF antenna.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,643, issued Nov. 17, 1998 to Reiner, describes a timepiece comprising a face having a polygonal configuration when viewed in plan and a timekeeping mechanism coupled with the face. Means for indicating the hour of time, the minute of the hour, the day of the month, and the seconds of the hour are provided along the sides of the polygon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,348, issued Apr. 20, 1999 to Lyon, describes a novel method or convention of tracking and displaying the passage of time. Three groups of display elements are used and each group is distinguishable from the other two groups. Each display element is capable of displaying one of two states and can be readily switched between the two states. The first group consists of twelve display elements to indicate the hours. The second group consists of five display elements to indicate the passage of multiples of ten minutes. The third group consists of nine display elements to indicate the passage of minutes.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20020031051, published Mar. 14, 2002 to Emami, describes a watch, wherein the time is represented by a plurality of display means that are individually activated or deactivated. The watch includes a first group of display means for the number of hours, a second group of display means for a first position of the number of minutes and a third group for the second position of the number of minutes. The display means in each group preferably form at least three subgroups, wherein the groups and subgroups are arranged in such a way that they can be separately and optically perceived and the amount of display means activated in a group correspond to a figure redisplaying the time.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20020196711, published Dec. 26, 2002 to Guhl, describes a watch having a digital or analogue time display and a device for displaying Chinese depictions by means of a display element. The display element displays the twelve Chinese life symbols and is designed such that it visually reveals one life symbol in each case for a time period of two hours, the respectively visible depiction correlating with a specific time display.
German Patent No. 4,111,415, published October 1992, describes an apparatus that displays time in the usual hours, minutes and seconds format. A quinary system of indication is used with a matrix of identical illuminated units. A right-hand vertical column indicates the numbers 1 to 4, a central column indicates the numbers 5, 10, 15, and 20, and a left-hand column indicates the numbers 25 or 50 to complete a minutes/seconds display. The hours 1 to 24 are displayed in a separate 2 column matrix in similar quinary fashion.
German Patent No. 4,135,514, published Feb. 25, 1993, describes an apparatus having a main surface with a display element which is movable relative to it. The main surface represents a complete time cycle, for example, a day, and the display element is superimposed on it. The display element maybe brighter than, or a different color to the main surface, and shows the actual time.
German Patent No. 4,134,709, published Apr. 22, 1993, describes a method involving using a visual symbol to represent each decimal figure (0-9) in a single or multi-digit number, for example, by illuminating selected LEDs in rows redisplaying hours, minutes, seconds or days, months, years. The method may take account of decimal placing of the numbers.
Japanese Patent No. 2002-98,782, published Apr. 5, 2002, describes a method for color-coding the time into hours, minutes and seconds and displaying them by fourteen display windows. The time is displayed by display windows for hours, minutes, and seconds, a minute interpolation display window and a second interpolation window. In the display windows, for example, primary color LEDs are used, and red color for hour display, green color for minute display and blue color for second display are distributed to display the hour, the minutes in five minute units, and the seconds in five second units by lighting positions of respective colors. The minute interpolation display window represents minutes dividable by five minutes, such as five minutes, ten minutes, and fifteen minutes when not lighted, sequentially lights the next minute in white, the next minute in red, the next minute in green and the next minute in blue, and displays sixty minutes in one minute units together with the twelve display windows of five minute units.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, a device for displaying time solving the aforementioned problems is desired.